I 953 

.886 

15 

>py l 



CHE MERITS 



—OF— 



"HOME RULE" 



;b/ 



-IN- 



Ireland, 



BY 



JOSEPH Nl M MO, Jr. 



-1 8 8 6. 



J) A <* £ ^ 

The Merits of "Home Rule" io Ireland. 

Mr. Gladstone's appeal to tbe people of 
Great Britain and Ireland bas been made, 
and tbe reform of Home Rule, although not 
fully endorsed at tbe polls, bas yet advanced 
to a stage at which fiual success appears to 
be inevitable. Since tbe result of the strug- 
gle bas been made known, the criticism has 
been freely offered, both iu this country and 
in England, that the great Premier has been 
precipitate, that he had better have post- 
poned the election until the autumn, for the 
reason that tbe English mind is slow to 
adopt new political dogmas. This appears 
to be the philosophy of people wbo have lit- 
tle cause for pride of foresight, but who take 
infinite delight in the infallibility of their 
backsight. The world, however, recognizes the 
fact that Mr. Gladstone is not only a states- 
man of great resources, but also a politician 
of wonderful astuteness. No man knows 
better than he that the political advancement 
of nations proceeds not like the steady flow- 
ing river, but like the receding and ad vane 
ing billows of the incoming tide. At the be- 
ginning, Mr. Gladstone announced his pur- 
pose of forcing the consideration of his 



Home Rule Measure upon Parliameut, to the 
exclusion of all other legislation except the 
passage of bills for providing the means of 
carrying: on the government. Accordingly 
he demanded for its discussion five out of six 
days of each week, a right exercised by the 
ministry only in cases of emergency. The 
election so soon following the final vote in 
Parhameui was clearly a part of the same line 
of tactics employed in the House of Com- 
mous. His uniform declarations from the 
beginning have been to the effect that he 
should regard defeat in Parliament and at 
the polls as merely incidents in a struggle 
the result of which mast be the eventual tri- 
umph of the priuciple auuoiuicedin the 
Home Rule Bill. He nas succeeded in mak- 
ing the measure the foremost and absorbing 
political issue of Great Britain, and all the 
advices indicate that no other measure can 
command the atteation of the country until 
this is disposed of. 

The present time appears to be opportune 
for presenting an analysis and explanation 
of the features of the bill, which I am able to 
do, having received a copy of it at the hands 
of a friend, from the Eon. Wm. J.Lane, 
member of Parliament for the City of Cork. 
Generally it has been said that the 
Home Rule Bill proposes to confer rights 

f local government similar to our state gov- 



ernments. But that is not sufficiently accur- 
ate in order to convey a definite idea of tbe 
merits of tbe measure. The rights granted are 
in fact much narrower and more constrained 
the powers of government enjoyed by the 
states of this country, as will appear from 
tne following review : 

THE LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY. 

The legislative authority proposed to be 
created in Ireland is summarily described in 
tbe Bill in these words, "There shall be es 
tablishedin Ireland a Legislature consisting 
of Her Majesty, the Queen, and an Irish Leg* 
islative Body." In a word the Lord Lieu- 
tenant of Ireland, appointed by tbe Crown, 
and paid out of the Royal Exchequer, -'shall 
give or witbold the assent of Her Majesty to 
Bills passed by the Irish Parliament." This 
legislative body is debarred from passing 
laws in regard to the status or dignity of the 
crown, the making of war or peace, the 
army or navy, forts or arsenals, intercourse 
with foreign countries, dignities or titles of 
honor; treason, alienage or naturalization; 
the postal or telegraph service ; navigation, 
beacons or lighthouses ; money ; copyright, 
or patent rights. jSTor shall tbe Irish Legis- 
lature make any law respecting an establish 
ment or endowment of religion, or prohibit- 
ing the free exercise thereof, or in any man- 
ner working disability on account of relig 
ious belief, or in any manner prejudicially 



affecting the right to establish or maintain 
denominational scnools. The Irish Parlia- 
ment is to consist of two branches known as 
"The first and the second order/' The first 
order is to consist of one hundred and three 
members, of whom seventy-five are to be 
elective, and twenty-eight peerage members 
and the second order is to consist of two 
hundred and four elective members. A pro- 
perty qualification is established with the 
limit of two hundred pounds a year| income, 
or a capital value of four thousand pounds. 

"Whether Ireland shall or shall not contin- 
ue to send members to the Imperial Parlia- 
ment to legislate upon matters other than 
those relating to Ireland is as yet an open 
question. In fact Mr. Gladstone has repeats 
edly declared the entire detail of the Bill to 
be subject to amendment or even to radical 
change. His present fight is directed to the 
single thought of establishing the principle 
of tbe bill, viz. : the right of Ireland to man- 
age her own internal affairs. 

THE EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY. 

The Lord Lieutenant, who is to be the 
Chief Executive of Ireland, is to be appointed 
by the Queen ; his salary, and the expenses 
of his household and establishment to be 
paid from the Royal Exchequer, and the 
Legislature of Ireland is debarred from pass- 
ing any Act relating to his office or functions. 



6 

The veto power over legislation by the Irish 
Parliament is delegated to him, subject to 
instructions which may from time to time be 
given him by Her Majesty. He is also em- 
powered to exercise the prerogatives of Her 
Majesty in respect to suiumoaing, prorogu- 
ing and dissolving the Irish Legislative 
Body. It must be remembered that this, to 
us Americans, apparently despotic power is 
so exercised in Great Britain, as to voice 
public sentiment even more promptly than it 
finds expression in this country through the 
election of a House of Representatives once 
in two years. 

THE JUDICIARY. 

Under the provision of the Home Rule 
Bill, the Judges of the Supreme Court of 
Judicature, and other Supreme Courts of Ire- 
land and of County Courts, and of other 
courts of like jurisdiction in Ireland, will con- 
tinue to be appointable by the crown, and to 
be removable in pursuance of an address to 
Her Majesty from both branches of the Irish 
Legislative Body. The salaries of such offi- 
cers will be paid out of the "Consolidated 
Fund of the United Kingdom." 

OTHER FEATURES OF THE HOME RULE BILL. 

Constitutional questions arieing in the 

course of Irish legislation are to be decided 

by appeal to Her Majesty in Council. This 

in the eyes of Americans involves the anom _ 



aly of placing tbe decision of questions 
of a legal and judicial nature in the deter- 
mination of a body which from its constitu- 
tion is moved by political rather than by 
judicial considerations. 

Evidently the legislative, executive, and 
judicial power granted to the proposed Irish 
government by Mr. Gladstone's bill, consti- 
tute a scheme of government very much in- 
ferior in scope and function to that very gen- 
eral and unconstrained provision of our nation - 
al constitution which provides for the admis- 
sion of new states into the Union upon the 
simple condition that they shall have a gov- 
ernment which is republican in form. 

FINANCE. 

The system of finance provided in the Home 
Rule Bill, appears in the light of our own na- 
tional experiences to be not only clumsy, but 
unnecessarily complex. Under its provis- 
ions Ireland is to collect all internal taxes, 
and to pay a portion over to the Consolida- 
ted Fond of the United Kingdom. In case 
of war the bill, in terms, makes it necessary 
for the imperial government to call upon Ire- 
land for its financial contingent. This is 
the method of finance which prevailed in 
this country from Nov. 18, 1777 to April 
30, 1879, when the present Federal Union 
went into operation. The evils of the old 
system of finance constituted one of the rea- 



sods for establishing "a more perfect Union." 
Our present system of national finance which 
was organized by Alexander Hamilton, is 
entirely independent of state interference. 
It has saved the country a world of trouble, 
especially during the late war, and in the 
adjustment and payment of the national 
debt. 

OBJECTIONS TO THE HOME RULE BILL. 

The opponents of the Home Rule Bill 
have during the recent campaign repeatedly 
declared that the Parnellites intend to use 
their new powers to enable them to set up an 
independent government. This however can 
only be regarded as a political libel. Mr. 
Parnell and his coadjutors in the new move- 
ment indignantly repel the charge. Long 
ago, Lord Macaulay exposed the absurdity 
of the assumption that any political party 
can entertain secret designs or cherish pur- 
poses ulterior to those which it professes. 
But the disingenuousness of the objection is 
evident from the fact that under the Home 
Rule Bill, the imperial government retains 
its absolute control of the Army and Navy, 
and of all forts, arsenals and munitions of 
war, and that it will in no manner be in a 
less favorable position to suppress insurrec- 
tion in Ireland, than at the present time, 
conditions governing the settlement of the 
Irish question. 



9 

The conditions surrounding and governing 
the settlement of the Irish question are so 
widely different from those which prevail in 
this country that it is well uigh impossible 
for an American to comprehend, much less 
to explain the considerations involved in the 
deinils,oi the Home Rule Bill. The social 
and political institutions of Great Britain 
and Ireland are characterized by peculiarities 
which have no correspondent whatever in the 
political institutions of this country. I refer 
especially to ecclesiasticism in politics, to in- 
herited religious prejudices, to the moral in- 
fluence of historical events in the course of 
the developement of the country, to the in- 
fluence of class distinctions, in social and po- 
litical affairs and especially the institution of 
a hereditary nobility, to the nature and ex- 
tent of landed proprietorships and their rela- 
tiou to the agricultural classes, to the law of 
primogeniture and entail, and to the inci- 
dents of a monarchy cherished by a people 
who in the detail of their governmental sys- 
tem have in certain particulars taken hold on 
democratic ideas even more vigorously than 
ourselves. 

But the whole course of the development 
of political idea in Europe and in America 
has proceded from diametrically opposite 
points. Our system is in fact the very invert 
of theirs. We began our political existence 
with only "Home Rule." It is no stretch of 



10 

the verities of our political history to assert 
that the town was the germ of government 
in this country. Mr. Charles R. Street of 
this village has in his interesting historical 
sketch of Huntington shown that it was at 
one time a governmental autonomy. At the 
time of the Declaration of Independence gov- 
ernmental sovereignty existed only in the 
states, but in the course of events, they were 
forced by the exigencies of self preservation, 
and the highest considerations of self interest 
to evolve the national sovereignty which since 
1789 has constituted us a nation. Neverthe- 
less, the state now touches the individual at 
a hundred points where the national govern- 
ment touches him at one, and the tendency 
toward sending the exercise of governmental 
powers to the extremities is stronger than 
that toward increasing the powers of the gov- 
ernment at Washington. These two tenden- 
cies are not conflicting but co-ordinate. Both 
tend to functional efficiency in administration. 
The constitution of our own state now con- 
fers upon the boards of supervisors of the 
several counties, certain "powers of local 
legislation and administration," and as we all 
know this special form of "home rule" has 
operated beneficially for Long Island particu- 
larly, in respect to its fisheries, which inter- 
ests it has in common with no other part of 
the state. 



11 

But the relation of political institutions .to 
the people is widely different in Great Bri- 
tain, and in fact throughout Europe. Tbere 
the theory has from time immemorial taken 
possession of the minds of men.that the germ 
of political power resides in the national sov- 
ereignty, and that all local self government 
and in fact all popular liberty has, in the pro- 
gress of civilization and of reform in guv 
ernmental methods been accorded by, or 
w rested from the sovereign power. 

IRELAND'S GRIEVANCES. 

During the recent debates in Parliament 
and in the campaign just closed, Mr. Glad- 
stone has labored to impress upon his coun 
try men the advantages of federated gover 
mental powers, and the idea that the empire 
would be all the stronger for local self gover- 
nment. This idea as before shown is elemen- 
tary to our system of government. It is 
therefore quite incomprehensible to us that 
bo large a proportion of tne British nation is 
not to-day educated up to the doctrine that 
the summation and formulated expression of 
all the liberties which a people can, and ought 
to enjoy under the guardianship of legal 
sanction, is a code of laws framed with a 
view to meeting their specific wants, and con- 
formed to their specific experiences and the 
particular conditions which constitute their 
environment, and that such laws can only be 



12 

devised by those whose interest it is to have 
them enacted. The sullen answer of Tory 
and Conservative to Mr. Gladstone's eloquent, 
and almost pathetic pleadings upou this point 
is that he is "taking a step toward the dis- 
memberment of the empire". Tney also 
point to the fact that Ireland has already 
been granted many important concessions, 
aDd,tkat she is unreasonable now in asking tor 
more. But all experience proves that a 
proud people can never be satisfied to barter 
rights for privileges. A surfeit of largesses 
may be heaped upon them but they will hate 
the donor, who at the same time deprives 
them of a single liberty. When therefore 
John Bright, refers to the enfranchisement 
of Catholics, the disestablishment of__the 
church-state in Ireland, the reform of the 
land laws, the arrears act, and other legisla 
tion, ending last year with an act securing 
the widest household sufferage, and asks 
''Could any government in the same length 
of time have done more for any people", we 
are prompted to refer him for reply, to the 
noble and statesmanlike utterance of Cardi- 
nal Hanniug in his recent letter to an Araer 
ican friend ; "In your majestic unoin there 
is a central power which binds all your liber- 
ties and legislatures int'> one commonwealth. 
England, Ireland and Scotland must, in my 
belief, all alike have home rule in affairs that 
are not imperial ; but there is an august sov- 



13 

ereignty of a thousand years, the centre of 
a world-wide empire standing in the midst of 

us. The sovereignty 

pervades ail its parts and will ever restrain 
and promptly redress all excesses of delega- 
ted power." 

But there is undoubtedly an expression less 
specious tban that above mentioned to al 
lowing Ireland the advantages of ''Home 
Rule." It is an objection heard only in deep 
under tones. The lesson of the revolt of her 
American colonies, gradually forced Great 
Britian to accord to her remaimug colonies 
commercial independence. By virtue of 
such privileges, the colonies generally have 
discarded the sophisms of free trade, and 
have enacted tariffs protective of their own 
manufacturing and other industries. The 
real bugbear of "Home Rule" at the present 
time appears therefore to be, that Ireland 
might in time gain the right to make her own 
tariff, in which case nhe would in all proba 
bility discriminate against Mr, John Bright' s 
Birmingham carpets, and against many other 
products of English manufacture. So hidden 
away under much inconsequential rubbish 
may be found a very concrete objection 
expressed in terras of pounds, shillings and 
pence. 

It is of course impossible in a single news- 
paper article to portray the wrongs of Ire- 



14 

land. They had then* origin centuries ago, 
in the conflicts of antagonistic races, and in 
religious differences. From the time when 
the Briton first dominated Ireland she has 
been held oy military torce. In referring to 
the period of reconstruction involved in plac 
iug the Scottish King, James VI, upon the 
English throne as James I, Lord Macanlay 
says "Ireland was undisguisedly governed as 
a dependency won by the sword." Since that 
time she has suffered woes which would have 
obliterated a people less brave and less ro- 
bust. On the first day of the present cen- 
tury the Irish Parliment was abrogated and 
the so-called "Union" was inaugurated un- 
der circumstances of outrage and perfidy. 
For twenty nine years thereafter, Catholics 
were disfranchised through what Mr. Glad- 
stone in a recent speech in Parliament has 
declared to be "a woeful disregard of solemn 
promises." Finally, in the year 1829, Cath- 
o.ic emancipation was achieved, mainly 
through rhe eloquent pleadings of Daniel 
O'Connell. But as Mr. Gladstone observes, 
this right was accorded, "not from good-will 
but from abject terror, and to avoid civil 
war." 

The most aggravating evil, which for near 

ly two centuries afflicted the Irish people, 

Catholics and Presbyterians alike, and which 

nurtured their animosity toward England, 

was the fact that they were taxed for the 



15 

support of a state-cburch with wbich tbey 
held no vol notary connection, and for wbicb 
they bad no affection. Thi-: abuse was final- 
ly abolished in the year 1871 under the 
leadership of Mr. Gladstone. 

Pivhaps the most serious cause of com 
plaint by the Irish people has arisen from the 
failure of the Imperial Parliament to act up- 
on Irish interests. Failure to act is often- 
times a deed done, for time legislates as well 
as parliaments, and the decree too late, stands 
as the finality of many a political opportun 
it j? lust. In this country, with a Congress 
charged only with the duty of attending to 
national affairs, there are many importan 
bills which die at the expiration of each Con- 
gress. How then must it be in the case of a 
Parliament charged with the duty of legisla 
ting for an Empire upon which the sun nev- 
er Sots, and also with the home interests of 
Eugland, Scotland and Ireland. Even in the 
legislation which is effected blunders are 
made from sheer ignorance of Irish affairs. 
But Irish interest suffer far more from inat- 
tention. 

Besides the evils of governmental misman- 
agement, Ireland has suffered untold miseries 
from her system of laud tenures, which cry 
aloud for reform Absentee landordism has 
added the coldness of neglect to the hard- 
ships of a system, harsh enough in its legal 



16 

characteristics. Small wonder is it that Ire- 
land has for more than a hundred years pre- 
sented a scene of domestic turbulence and of 
downright violence. Since the beginning of 
the present century the wiit of Habeas Cor- 
pus has been suspended twenty four times, 
and various bills have been passed by Parlia- 
ment for the purpose of suppressing insur 
rection and of preventing threatened out- 
break. In his closing speech of the recent 
debate in the Bouse of Commons, Mr. Par- 
nell said ''During the last five years you have 
had suspension of the Habeas Corpus in Ire- 
land A thousand of your fellow — subjects 
have been imprisoned without specific chaige, 
many for long periods, — twenty moutbs,— 
without trial, and without any intention to 
try them. You have had the right of domi- 
cile infriuged at all hours of the day and 
night; You have fiued the innocent for the 
guilty : You have assumed the power to ex- 
pel aliens from the couutry, you have re- 
newed the "Curfew law" and "blood money' 7 
of vour Norman Conquerors ; you have gag 
ged the press, seized aud suppressed newspa- 
pers, manufactured new crimes and offenses 

and if the proposed coercion 

policy, which is involved in the rejection of 
this oill is to be carried out,— all this and 
much more you will do again." On the same 
occasion Mr. Gladstone declared the treat- 



17 

merit of Ireland to be "a black blot upon the 
pages of England's history." 

WHAT "HOME RULE'' OFFERS. 

The provisions of the Home Rule Bill have 
alreaay been described. Unquestionably the 
degree of favor with which it has been re- 
ceived in England and in Scotland is due 
very largely to Mr. Gladstone's personal in- 
fluence. Without going into the detail of the 
benefits likely to be afforded by the bill, for 
that would transcend the proper limits of 
this article, it is sufficient, here to give Mr. 
Parnell's opinion of its merits. In his clos- 
ing speech in the House of Commons he said : 
— "The Irish people can accept this bill; they 
have accepted it without reserve, as a meas- 
ure which may be considered the final settle- 
ment of the whole question." But as a prac- 
tical measure of adjusting political differ- 
ences, the chief value of the Home Rule 
Bill consists in the moral influence of the 
circumstances under which it has been pro- 
posed, and under which, with the preserved 
life of Mr, G-ladstone the principle which it 
announces will in all probability be enacted 
into law. Unlike other measures of reform 
which have come to the Irish people as tro- 
phies of a conflict, and for that reason have 
buried no resentments, this comes to themm 
the manly spirit of good fellowship, with 
stalwart honesty of faith in them, and hope 



18 

for them, and charity toward them. It is at 
once an act of justice and a becoming appeal 
to a race characterized by warm hearts as 
well as strong heads. In the finest sense it 
is a measure of Union. There is about It 
"the touch of nature" which "makes the 
whole world kin." Happily too it comes at 
a time when the Irish people, Catholic aud 
Protestants, — are united in purpose aud in 
organization. The most benign feature of 
the whole movement consists in the fact that 
although the Catholic population of Ireland 
largely preponderates, leadership is now with- 
out rivalry accorded to Charles Stewart Par- 
nell, a Presbyterian. The import of this fact 
may be the better comprehended by statiug 
thatof the total number of church adherents in 
Ireland in 1881 there were 3,951,888 Cath- 
olics, 485,503 Presbyterians, 635,670 fol- 
lowers of the Church of England, and 97.778 
adherents of all other religious denomina 
tions. 

But this is not the first time that Irish 
Catholics have followed the lead of Protes- 
tants, in their attempts to throw off the yoke 
of: political oppression. There were Dean 
Swift, and Theobald Wolfe Tone, and Rob 
ert Emmet and Edward Fitzgerald, and 
Henry Grattan and many others of less celeb 
rity. Could the Catholics of Ireland give a 
better pledge of their sincerity, or a more 
convincing proof of their honesty of purpose. 



19 

It is a cruel aspersion upon a chivalric race 
to assume now that they will prostitute 
civil liberty to the cause of religious intol- 
erance. 

Notwithstanding the efforts of Tory lead- 
ers to sow the seeds of political dissension, 
and to excite religious strife between Catho- 
lics and Protestants, the Home Rule Bill 
has been accepted by all true Irishmen with- 
out regard to creed. From Westminster, 
Cardinal Manning sends his hearty endorse- 
ment of the bill, and uustinted Commenda- 
tion of Mr. Parnell, and from Princeton, the 
Rev. Doctor Mc Cosh, President of the Col- 
lege of New Jersey, who may be regarded as 
the representative Protestant Irishman in 
-America expresses his warm sympathy 
in, and adhesion to Mr. Gladstone's measure 
of relief for his native isle. Cardinal Man- 
ning, and Doctor McCosh both accept it, as 
being purely political in its character, and as 
an act of justice to an oppressed people. 

No movement in Europe, during the pres- 
ent century has so strongly elicited the atten- 
tion or evoked the sympathy of the people of 
this country, nor has there been presented to 
tbem a spectacle so fascinating as the action 
of Eogland's greatest stateman, who after a 
career of unexampled success indeyisingand 
promoting measures of political reform, now 
in the fullness of his fame, and at a period 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS , M 

021 356 770 6 



of life, reaching almost RTTBe - ultimate lim- 
its of the allotted time of man upon earth, 
implores his countrymen, in the treatment of 
a portion of their fellow subjects, to substi- 
tute love for hate, trust for suspicion, gen- 
erosity for selfishness, respect for contempt, 
and justice for oppression, and who in the 
joyous anticipation of the dawn of a bright- 
er day for his country, exclaims with»all the 
ardor of youth— "Ring out the old, ring in 
the new." 

Joseph ISTimmo, Jr. 
Huntington, H". Y., July 16th, 1886. 



